Leftover
by DragShot
Summary: She wasn't able to explain it to herself, and after an uncountable amount of times wondering about the issue at hand, she began to feel sick. How could Rose, from every being existent and to exist in the entire universe, put her eyes in someone like Greg? Why didn't the quartz gem choose her instead? Why was she left with this leftover? What could she do to get her happiness back?


**AN: Yo guys, it's me again. Crap, you're right, I forgot to continue with "Recruitment". Anyway, while I struggle to translate those chapters, I'll leave you with this one-shot I already posted in Spanish earlier this year.**

 **Well, it's time for some Pearl and Steven. Eh, no, there are no shippings in here; it's more like a mother/son or guardian thing. But go ahead, I think you're going to like this.  
**

* * *

 **Leftover  
** _A fiction short by DragShot_

A day. Only 24 hours had passed since Rose had renounced to her own being in order to bring that... _thing_ into this world.

\- **Grah..** \- mumbled Pearl while keeping a firm hold of the mop. Out there, a beautiful sunset was taking place, and the sunlight gently caressed the exterior walls of the Crystal Temple, although all of that resulted irrelevant right now.

She wasn't able to explain it to herself, and after an uncountable amount of times wondering about the issue at hand, she began to feel sick. She didn't even know a gem could feel like that, or maybe it was merely an illusion created by her own unconscious. Stupid humanization, a side-effect of having lived so near of those overgrown apes since the Crystal Gems established themselves in what today is know as Beach City, back when their glorious leader was with them. Those old, good days, with no annoying earthlings getting in the way.

Or at least, not like now with Greg. Said human came to see them often because the newborn was staying with the gems for some days, while the man looked for a place to live with him later.

About the little... remainder, Rose's leftover, it was something whose mere existence was something hard to explain. How is it possible that a gem, an inorganic form of life by definition and nature, was able to perform such a process conceivable only for organic beings? Successfully replicating the complex mechanisms of human reproduction must be a feat for sure, something the pale gem would always admire of her, although she couldn't understand why in the world would Rose transfer her quartz gemstone to her son. Or maybe she simply refused to accept it. Couldn't Rose simply give birth to a normal human child for later, who knows, bragging about it or something? Pearl would have done so in her place. A gem shapeshifting into a form so perfect that it is compatible with organic species is not something you see everyday. What the hell did Rose pretend to achieve with all of this? Had she hidden something from Pearl before leaving for good?

No, that was inconceivable. From all the gems she'd ever known, Pearl was the most trustful of them. She was her confident, after all. The only one who kept her biggest secrets, no matter how trivial or dark those could have been.

And then, there's this Greg, again. How could Rose, from every being existent and to exist in the entire universe, put her eyes on someone like him, someone that resulted mediocre even for the low standards of his own species? How could she get so low? Why choosing him?

\- **Why couldn't you choose me?** \- she said in a whisper.

Pearl stayed by her side since the very beginning. Rose was her purpose, her destiny. Pearl literally sacrificed her own well-being for Rose's several times, going way further than being just a service gem. The quartz gem taught her what freedom was, what being the owner of your own existence and responsible of your actions meant, what having a life of her own was like. And then, the little gem decided to stay with her. To share that life she's been blessed with, with her beloved savior.

But then Rose "didn't give a fuck" about all that, be valid the terrestrial expression, when she met Greg. In matter of some years both of them became a pair of lovebirds, being deeply infatuated one with the other. Who'd have imagined that? Well, not this gem.

Pearl never had a chance to confess her feeling towards Rose. Perhaps because she never managed to bring together enough courage for that, or because she never felt sure enough of the nature of her feelings. Whatever was the reason of her failure, it didn't really matter in the end.

\- **Because you are not here anymore. You will never come back.** \- added with disdain.

Now there only was... Steven. Yes, that was his name. The back then happy couple decided so with two months remaining for the deliver.

The newborn was in that room known for being full of clouds and displaying an eternal sunset, the quartz room, with the careless of Amethyst playing with him. It resulted almost preposterous how the purple gem was able to push aside the passing of someone like Rose so quickly. Or maybe she need desperately a distraction for not thinking of that and end crying like she did during the first four and a half hours after the child took his first breathe. Both were perfectly valid and credible options.

In what comes to Garnet, well, her position about it was a mystery.

Finally, Pearl concluded that the best she could do was letting life follow its course and go on with the temple cleanup she had left half done. Ah, the benefits of being a low-class gem whose chores served well to distract her from her afflictions.

* * *

Eight months, and things seem to show a slow tendency to change. Not bad. Greg had managed to acquire a car-wash in which he labored now. That guy still looked like an authentic mediocre, and he even seemed to show slight signs of an imminent alopecia, but at least he would be an employed, bald mediocre. That was a situation way better than the one he was in some time ago, except for the fact the building the car-wash was in couldn't serve as a living place and thus the child was sleeping in the van as last resort.

Pearl grimaced at the thought of that.

That small, anti-hygienic place, with that nasty smell to motor oil, where once Greg and Rose did their disgusting business with...

Eww! What would she even think of something as low as that for?

But wait, little Steven had to spend the night in there! As the owner of her heart was long gone, it was Steven the carrier of her beloved quartz gem now. So, there surely was something left of Rose in there, and someone like her definitely deserved a better care.

That's why the gems took any chance they had to request permission for taking care of the child instead of Greg, whenever any problem arose for the single parent. It usually was Garnet who was assigned such a task to, staying with the kid in her burning chamber when there wasn't any pending missions, in order to keep him warm. Outside the temple, there was no safe place for him.

But not this time. This night, it has Pearl who was in charge of taking care of him. The water fountains around emitted a calming sound, while a small baby cot generated from Rose's room sheltered the little hybrid. He was playing around with his rattle, under the watch of the pale gem.

Sometimes, his actions resulted interesting to her; some other times, confusing; and others, irritating.

\- **I still can't believe Rose had left me for... well, this... f-for... someone like you.**

It wasn't fair, it wasn't at all, and she usually made him know it. That served her well for getting rid of the stress, and besides, he was just a baby. No word on Earth, or Homeworld, no matter how hurtful it could sound, was able to affect him in the slightest. It was perfect.

\- **I don't get it. You are a gem, and even so, you lack of a light-projected physical form. You have a body. You need to eat, sleep, breathe and to do everything humans do in order to survive. What are you?... Why are you here?... What is the meaning of your existence?... What purpose does it serve?**

Pearl grabbed a firm hold of the cot. The child didn't mind, naturally. A known face meant no problem to him.

The gem looked at him steadily. The rage accumulating inside of her was evident in her stare, while she was being flooded with memories of those marvelous years with Rose and then realizing that all that was gone, forever, considering the latest events.

He was Steven, her curse. Something whose existence was inexplicable, a living abomination. But the quartz gem was in him. The very scent of Rose, it was part of him.

And his presence meant her disappearance. His life was her death.

\- **Why?...** \- went on as her voice was loosing strength - **Why? Why!? WHY!? Why must you be here in place of her? Why did your stupid father had to come to our lives? Why can't you simply be gone for her to come back!?...** \- the realization of the blasphemy she just said hit her back deeply, making her fall on her knees, about to explode in tears - **Why can't I... why can't I be happy for once?... Don't you care about me, Rose? Or was it that you never cared about me, as I've always cared about you?...** \- then she let it out, standing immediately while she shouted as loudly as she could - **DOES SOMEBODY EVEN GIVE A DAMN THING ABOUT ME FOR BEING AN...** \- the fire inside her extinguished, as suddenly as it began - **an old, poor and lackluster pearl?**

On the bright side, at least she had gotten the baby's attention.

Pearl looked bad. She was crying. People cried when they were in trouble. Pearl was in trouble. Rattles make Steven feel better when he's in trouble, so...

The baby offered his rattle to her, but Pearl had other plans.

\- **I don't want your toy,** \- she replied with a cold voice - **I want my Rose back with me.** \- Her gemstone began glowing - **Give her back!**

With one direct slice, the cot exploded in a bunch of pink, cotton-candy-like clouds, and was no more. Steven lied on the floor, surprisingly safe and unharmed.

Pearl's pose was as elegant as menacing, but the baby lacked of any knowledge about the last. For his still very small mind, that pose reminded of the gem dancing. And he loved seeing her dance.

The hybrid offspring replied with a tiny happy baby giggle, which didn't fade away even when the tip of the spear approached dangerously towards his neck.

A known face meant no problem to him.

\- **Give her back...**

Fighting her directive, convictions, and everything that was natural to a servant-class gem like her, Pearl struggled to push forward, until the spear was pressed against the child's delicate skin.

The weapon's cold surface tickled the baby.

Steven started waving his little arms while laughing out loud. It seemed it wasn't nothing but a silly game to him.

That naive, sweet smile of him was too much.

Pearl couldn't go any further. Not even a worse dismay, if such a thing was even possible and she pleaded the stars to never let her have such a fate, could force her to do something so low, so cruel. Besides, she had promised to protect this being from even herself. She had vowed to keep her word, because it was the dying wish of someone special.

The baby grabbed the spear's tip and stuffed it into his mouth. Oh, that ridiculous instinct of covering everything in saliva. It could be adorable sometimes, though.

Then their stares crossed, just for a moment, but Pearl couldn't look away from there.

For a second, a mere instant, she would have sworn those tiny eyes had a too familiar shade of rose, irradiating the serenity and beauty of her long lost muse.

\- **I... I wonder if you are still there, and if you can see me... P-Please forgive me, I understand this is not really your fault.** \- she apologized, dismissing his weapon.

Those lights constructs vanishing in the air were a sight that always fascinated Steven to no end, but what happened next fascinated someone else.

\- **Prrl... Prrl!** \- mumbled the baby while happily fidgeting with his arms.

\- **Ugh?** \- Pearl certainly didn't see that coming.

Did he... did he just try to call her by her name? Even if he failed, this was no common intent of speaking.

\- **His first words...** \- the pale gem whispered to herself.

The child was finally starting to develop his phonetic abilities, and unlike most of humans, his first choice hasn't been "mom" or "dad". He had chosen "pearl", from all words in all spoken languages in the universe. Pearl had never felt so touched because of just a single word in her thousands of years of existence.

In retrospective, to have even considered to kill him some minutes ago was something way beyond madness. Nobody must ever know about such a thing.

\- **Prrl!...**

\- **That's right, Steven.** \- she said, kneeling in front of the creature and placing her delicate hand on his, white as fine porcelain, while new tears slipped on her cheeks - **I am Pearl, _your_ Pearl. And I won't let anything bad ever happen to you... I-I promise... I will do it for you, my Steven.**

That being wasn't a curse, or something that wasn't meant to exist. Well, maybe it actually was that last thing; but that's because it was something marvelous, an improbability, the very manifestation of the impossible. Steven was a _miracle_ , something not even the very best of Homeworld's technology could replicate. And the spear gem had the honor to see it in person, to live such a novel and potentially wonderful experience.

This wasn't just a leftover from Rose, it was her legacy. Steven was Rose's more precious gift, and it was for _her_.

It was in that moment when Pearl realized that maybe, deep inside, Rose actually loved her back.

* * *

\- **Pearl! We're home!** \- a voice came from the lower area of the room. Afterwards, a purple ball of fur rose from the water, unrolling on the floor to show a short individual with long, wild pale hair. It had the appearance of a little girl and an amethyst gemstone embedded on her chest. Behind her a spearfish came out of the water, transforming mid-air into what looked like a tall woman with dark skin, even darker shades and an intriguing cube-shaped afro. She possessed two garnet gemstones embedded on her palms. Once on firm ground, both of them took their time to dry out.

\- **Pearl...?** \- called Amethyst once more - **Hey Garnet, d'you think they're gone?**

\- **No. Both of 'em are in this room,** \- the taller gem replied, before pointing towards her left - **over there.**

Garnet and Amethyst went in the direction the former pointed to, anxious to see how the child was doing. Also, one of them might have been worried about the possible reactions of Pearl to being near to him for too long. It wasn't like the pale gem was willing to throw a welcome party just for him the day he came into existence.

However, what they found wasn't what they expected: next to one of the more distant water fountains of the room, cuddling in a corner under some blankets, were the rebel gem and the hybrid. Both in silence, as deeply asleep.

\- **Eh... isn't Pearl known for, I dunno, not sleeping at all?** \- asked the purple gem.

\- **I am not asleep, Amethyst.** \- whispered the mentioned gem, opening one of her eyes - **I am just taking a rest, that is it. He, however, really is.**

\- **Hmp. Old habits die hard.** \- commented Garnet - **Maybe you'd like some company.**

\- **I agree.**

And so, they cuddled together, pulling some more blankets from Amethyst's room. None of them three knew for how long they stayed like that, but what they did know was that they wouldn't feel bad about the issue with Rose's passing for a long time.

Because from there on, they began to learn to believe... believe in Steven.

* * *

 **AN: So that's it for now. Hope you've enjoyed reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review or comment if you feel like it, your feedback is really appreciated.**

 **Again, if you find any grammar error or typo, please, please, please report it to me so I can fix it.**

 **Until next time!  
**


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